Episode notes
Remember when five bucks could actually buy lunch?
Not just part of lunch. Not a drink and maybe some fries. An actual meal.
In this episode of The Old(er) Guy Show, Jeff takes a nostalgic, and occasionally painful, look at what inflation has done to the everyday purchases we once took for granted. From hamburgers and coffee to movie tickets, gasoline, groceries, and restaurant meals, the numbers on the price tags have certainly changed.
There was even a time when the $5 Footlong became a cultural phenomenon. Subway introduced the nationwide promotion in 2008, and it became one of the most successful fast-food promotions of its era. Today, five dollars doesn't stretch nearly as far. One workplace-lunch index put the average lunch price at $14.73 in 2026.
So what happened? Is it simply inflation? Higher wages and operating costs? Changing expectations? Or have we slowly become accustomed to paying prices that would have made our younger selves put the menu down and head home for a sandwich?
Jeff looks back at what everyday things used to cost, what they cost now, and why those increases seem especially noticeable when you're old enough to remember the original price.
Because apparently the $5 lunch didn't disappear.
It just became the $15 lunch.
Topics in this episode: Inflation • Food Prices • Fast Food • Restaurant Prices • Grocery Prices • Gas Prices • Coffee • Cost of Living • Nostalgia • Everyday Economics • Then and Now
The Old(er) Guy Show: looking at today's world through the eyes of someone who's been around long enough to remember when five dollars was actually money.